History of Flight
On May 16, 2015, at 1548 Pacific daylight time, a Beech King Air B200, registration N505SP, sustained substantial damage when it landed with the landing gear retracted at McClellan-Palomar Airport (CRQ) in Carlsbad, California. The aircraft was operated by a commercial pilot under 14 Code of Federal Regulations Part 91 on a cross-country personal flight. The pilot reported no injuries.
The flight departed Palm Springs, California, about 1515, with a planned destination of Santa Ana, California. Visual meteorological conditions prevailed, and no flight plan had been filed.
About 10 minutes into the flight, the pilot received an instrument flight rules clearance from air traffic control. The cloud tops were at 8,500 feet, and he was cleared to 6,000 feet, placing him in clouds.
Within minutes of entering clouds, the aircraft lost all electrical power, and the pilot lost contact with ATC. He climbed out of clouds, proceeded west, found a hole in the clouds over the Pacific Ocean, descended, and turned southbound. Partial electrical power was restored, and he attempted to contact ATC but his transmissions were not understood. He flew to CRQ and received a green light from the tower personnel. He extended the landing gear and flaps but had no airspeed indicator. When the airplane touched down, the pilot realized that the landing gear had not extended.
Witnesses reported that the airplane approached the runway faster than a normal landing, and the gear was still retracted.
During an initial telephone interview, the pilot stated that after the loss of electrical power he did not perform any emergency procedures because the checklist was in a cabinet and unreachable; he was just trying to fly the airplane. He stated that the generators were on at departure. When asked if he attempted to reset the generators, he again stated he did not do any emergency procedures except to fly. In a later interview, the pilot stated that he may have accidently turned on the starter switches, which would have turned off the generators and accounted for the loss of electrical power.
Post-Accident Examination
A mechanic dispatched about 30 minutes after the accident to defuel the aircraft observed fuel leaking from the right wing. He disconnected the battery, opened an access panel, but was unable to mechanically turn off the fuel selector valve. He reconnected the battery and entered the cockpit, finding the landing gear handle in the down position and the flap handle in the full up position. The battery switch was in the OFF position with the battery gang bar down, which turned off the battery, generator 1, and generator 2. After lifting the gang bar and turning on the battery switch, he saw nothing on the cockpit displays but heard the airplane power up. He located the fuel selector valve, turned it off, and confirmed with a firefighter that the solenoid in the wing audibly closed. The mechanic turned electrical power off and disconnected the battery. The fuel leak from the right engine filter bowl stopped.
Later, when preparing to defuel, the mechanic reconnected the battery and entered the cockpit to turn on electrical power. With power on, the cockpit displays illuminated, and he heard the landing gear attempt to operate to the down position. After another mechanic pulled the circuit breaker for the avionics, defueling proceeded.
During recovery, the airplane was lifted off the ground, and the landing gear were successfully extended to the down and locked position.
Emergency Procedures
The pilot checklist emergency procedures for a dual generator failure identify the first step to reset the generators, then on. If the generators do not reset, the checklist identifies for landing, to extend the landing gear manually.